Confetti shots

I LOVE a good confetti shot – in fact, I just love confetti in general, whether it be fluttering through the air over a Bride and Groom, or in its little packets ready to be thrown. 

Confetti is just fun and super pretty.

I’m making my own little confetti cones to hold our confetti, which will be given to our guests by our Bridesmaids. I’m making them out of paper doilies, but I’ve seen some Brides make some fabulous little personalised packets that fit inside their Order of Service booklets. I could have done similar as I love a good DIY project, but I think the doilies look a bit more festive and suit a winter wedding a bit better due to their colouring and the lacey edges.

So just to get you understanding the necessity of confetti, here are a few shots of confetti for inspiration..

Fellow wedding bloggers!

It’d be great if we could creat a network of wedding related blogs that we each could advertise on our blogs.

So I am going to create a Directory especially for wedding blogs.

If you would like to be added onto the list, send me a message and I’ll add you on! It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or have been going for a long time; I personally cannot get enough of weddings right now!

I’m also happy to include blogspot.com, gravatar and blogs on other domains to the list! You’re all welcome!!

Please note: this particular Directory is for personal blogs only – if you have a business you wish to advertise here, then I am more than happy to add you into the Business Directory list providing you follow the itsabridesworld philosophy of ‘quality products for affordable prices’.

itsabridesworld xx

Welcome to any recently engaged Brides!

Having been engaged for over a year now, it suddenly occurred to me that there’s probably a lot of you ladies (and gentlemen) who have followed my journey from various points along the way; from pre-engagement to my latest countdowm milestone.

So I just wanted to say a MASSIVE hello to any new Brides who have dropped in to find some bargains or catch up with my latest wedding development and also, THANK YOU to all you lovely people who have stuck with me over the last year and a half! It’s amazing to see so many of you visiting my blog daily!

Just a bit of  cheese to add to the mood..

And please, please, please leave me a message! I LOVE hearing from Brides from across the world and getting the low down on your weddings! I am hoping to do a regular feature on Brides who have followed the itsabridesworld philosophy and created their dream wedding on a budget, so if you feel this is you, please get in contact!

Lots of love,

itsabridesworld xx

Table set up

A big part of the wedding breakfast revolves around the tables.

Once you’ve got the tricky issue of the seating plan out of the way, the next thing to think about is what the table actually looks like.

Your venue may provide all the bits and set everything up for you, but I personally am going to put some creative input into the design and decoration of the tables. After all, its going to be the focal point of your guest’s vision for at least an hour or two!

I’m not necessarily talking about centerpieces either; I’m more thinking about how the plates etc are set up.

So here are a few photos of what I’d personally class as BEAUTIFULLY set up tables to give you some inspiration!

Its all about the detail; nicely folded napkins, knives and forks placed perfectly, charger plates, name place tags, table runners and table decorations.

In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than white plates being plonked on a white table with absolutely nothing else on it. Its boring. Even something simple like table gems or confetti make a massive difference.

And it doesnt have to be expensive! Most things can be DIY’ed really easily, and really cheaply. I love charger plates, but these are hard to come by cheaply. But napkins matching your colour theme are cheap to come by and make a big difference to your table.

Get pretty-fying your tables!!!

Put your wedding business on the Directory..

I am quite happy to add your wedding related business to The Directory on this blog, if you can provide me with the website address and I feel it works within what I am trying to promote within this blog.

To the lady (I believe your name was Sharon) who messaged me earlier today – please re-message me and forward the link to your site again and I will review it before deciding whether to add it to the Directory!

Don’t forget, the aim of this blog is to promote budget friendly weddings, so only businesses with a similar philosophy will be added to The Directory. Now I’m not saying you have to be dirt cheap, not at all. But you do have to represent good quality and good value, so bare that in mind when you apply!

Thanks,

itsabridesworld xx

We've been engaged ONE year!

This time last year, I was utterly speechless and crying after Mr M asked me to spend the rest of my life with him.

And what a year it has been!

The journey towards our wedding  has been one of many changes and many developments. Not in a bad way I might add; just in a very full on and busy way. There have been so many things going on external to the wedding, like buying a house, not to mention the many developments we have made to the wedding itself.

The colour scheme we decided upon for our big day has also changed a number of times since we put our initial thoughts down on paper… As soon as we got engaged we decided upon having a Spring wedding and we wanted a lemon yellow colour scheme. Three months later, we had booked our venue for the last week in December and had decided upon burgundy red for our colours!!! However, one month later, we’d been out shopping and came back with plumBridesmaid dresses! You’ll be pleased to know that we have stuck to plum, and there’s no going back now!!

Just a little photo of my all-time favourite piece of jewellery…

And the beautiful flowers Mr M had delivered to me today…

The year itself has been pretty amazing in spite of all the changes. I am LOVING planning our wedding. I have created so many personal touches that I feel are relevant to Mr M and myself, and have really enjoyed DIY’ing things to keep the costs down.  I have also really loved writing this blog and sharing my plans and bargain finds with you all – its been FAB!

And now, there is only 540 days to go till all this planning comes into effect and Mr M and I get married!

I really want..

.. a hand stamped piece of cutlery from Goozeberry Hill!!!

I can’t comment on the quality of them personally, but a fellow Bride I’ve been speaking to bought a couple of the hand stamped spoons and LOVES them!!

I really want one/two/a whole collection of them. They are SO cute! And a great keepsake! I want to get a MR & MRS pair for Mr M and I.

Each piece is about £6.50 each (depending on what you get – the Mr & Mrs forks are £15) and they’d make great presents for friends who are getting married as they are quite reasonable in price and you can have whatever you like stamped onto them.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Goozeberryhill?page=1

Once I’ve ordered mine I’ll post a picture..

18 months to go!

We have now reached our next big milestone – we have 18 months or 548 days to go until we tie the knot!

The last 11 and a half months have gone SO fast! I can’t quite believe that this time last year I had just celebrated my birthday, and was preparing to go on holiday with Mr M! It was also 6 months prior to this time that we were became ‘pre-engaged’ and I was sneaking the odd copy of Brides Magazine into my room to read and explore the world of weddings! Crazy!

But with 18 months to go, the wedding is starting to take shape. I’ve cut out so many photos from magazine articles and collected a library’s worth of inspirational images of beautiful weddings on my computer that I now feel I know where the wedding is ‘going’. Our theme has evolved so vastly in the last 11 months that it’s pretty much unrecognisable from the initial ‘colour scheme theme’. It’s now a full on THEMED wedding; developed from our passions, loves and hobbies.

At a farm park the other day (hence the rabbit food!)

However, the to-do list is gradually getting longer as the date nears. There is so many things we haven’t even started on yet, and I’d consider myself to be an overly organised Bride-to-be!

I am SO excited though! When we first set the date back in October 2011, two and a half years between getting engaged and getting married seemed like an age away. But the last year has gone by in the blink of an eye and now we only have 18 months to go!

Next milestone? ONE YEAR TO GO! (now that will be terrifying!!)

Manicures and pedicures

I will be booking myself in for both a manicure and pedicure in the days running up to our wedding, to ensure my nails are oh-so-pretty for the big day!

Mr M absolutely despises fake nails, so it’ll be a simple paint job for me! (I do keep teasing him though by saying I’m going to have really long nails put on hehe). But, the question is, do I ‘go nude’ or ‘go colour’?!

Nude nails on ‘normal’ nails is a bit of a waste I think personally as it doesn’t look any different to normal. So I was thinking I might wear a nail colour that is a similar shade to the Bridesmaid dresses; a beautiful rich plum colour, or go all out and have gold glitter to tie in with the other accent colour of our colour scheme!

Our wedding will be a festive winter wedding, so I think I can afford to be a bit more extravagant with my nails as it is all part of the glitzy-ness of the event! Strong colours will work amongst all the fairy lights and decorations, and will finish off my look perfectly!

It’ll also look good in the close-up photos we’ll have taken of our wedding rings!

Here’s the kind of thing I’m thinking of having…

Pretty!!!

Why a winter wedding?

People keep saying to me “Why on earth do you want to get married in winter? It’ll either rain or snow?!”. Well, erm, hello? When does it NOT rain in the UK?!

We chose to hold our wedding in December for a few reasons. Firstly, its a lot cheaper because it is ‘low season’ in the wedding world. Secondly, winter is a very romantic time, I think! And thirdly, you know you’ll probably either have rain or snow, so at least you can prepare for it, rather than be disappointed when all your optimism doesn’t work its magic and it pours mid-June.

PLUS, my job revolves around being outside in all weathers, and wearing wellies for 9 months of the year! So a wedding without wellies just wouldn’t be me!

I think the photos taken in winter are particularly beautiful; its all moody looking clouds and sparking frost on everything.. totally picturesque!!

I am also excited to wear my gorgeously fluffy ivory faux-fur cropped jacket! It was an absolute steal from Primark at £23, but will keep me toasty and warm for all those outside photos we plan to have! I just hope Mr M has considered wearing thermals under his suit…!

So, our preperation list goes as follows:

Weather watch constantly.

Give guests LOTS of notice on weather updates via wedding website.

Buy appropriate clothing to wear whilst outside; wellies, jackets, thermals, umbrellas etc.

Provide warming food and drinks.. and venue, for the guests!

Check possible supplier’ contracts for what happens if weather stops them providing their service.

Take as much to the venue prior to the wedding day, so that important items are there ready and waiting.

Snow proof cars belonging to the wedding party; get metal wheel tracks for tyres and non-slip ramps.

Provide a list of nearby accommodation establishments for guests who may not make it home due to heavy snow.

…

There is a lot to consider when holding your wedding in the winter, but I’m hoping it’ll be more than worth it! As long as Mr M and the registrar makes it to the venue, we’ll have a wonderful day!!!

Blonde haired babes

Some gorgeous hairstyles modelled by some equally lovely looking blonde ladies..

Brown haired beauties

Here’s a few hairstyles modelled on brown haired ladies for inspiration..

Red haired lovelies

Take some inspiration from the hairstyles of these gorgeous red haired ladies..